frankness

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Wake me up in a hundred years, ask me what is happening in Russia,” mused Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, a 19th-century satirist, “and I’ll tell you with my usual frankness: We steal, we drink, we make war.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

Portraits come in many incarnations—the rigorous realism of Holbein, the rococo elegance of Gainsborough, the harsh frankness of Lucian Freud, to name just a few.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

Judge John Woosley ruled that in “ ‘Ulysses,’ in spite of its unusual frankness, I do not detect anywhere the leer of the sensualist.”

From Slate • Aug. 21, 2025

“With his unconventional frankness and tenderness, he drew out people’s hidden qualities.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 1, 2025

"Do you believe that two people, two strangers who have never seen one another before can speak with utter frankness and sincerity?"

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison